Nauls
Nauls was the young cook of the U.S. Outpost 31. He is portrayed by T.K. Carter. History During the winter of 1982, the Norwegians were chasing an Alaskan Malamute around the outpost, the pilot was killed when he accidentally dropped a grenade and the passenger was killed by Garry thinking that he was hostile, the crew adopted the dog, Nauls later speculates that the possible cause of the attack that America and Norway might have started a war with each other, which the others denied. During the night, he was woken up by the fire alarm that was turned on by MacReady, who saw an unknown creature assimilating the dogs, MacReady ordered Childs to bring the flamethrower and ordered him to incinerate it. Bennings was later assimilated by the remains of the creature they found at the Norwegian base, MacReady later incinerates the Bennings replica. Blair suffers a total mental breakdown, he destroyed the helicopters, tractor and radio with an axe, and killed the remaining sled dogs, containing further contamination. The team overpowers him and locks him in the tool shed. With all contact to civilization cut off, the crew wonders how to determine who is still human. A torn shirt is found, confirming that the alien has indeed already assimilated at least one other person in the camp beside Bennings, but the name tag is torn out and the shirt cannot be matched to any one individual because they all wear the same size. Paranoia quickly sets in as the first attempt to develop a test using uncontaminated blood samples is sabotaged by an unknown party. Fuchs' body is found severely burned. MacReady speculates that Fuchs used a flare to burn himself before the Thing could get to him. He and the others then suspect MacReady to be infected when a scrap of torn shirt containing his name tag is found at the camp, and locks him outside in a severe blizzard. MacReady somehow finds his way back to camp without a guide line, breaks into a storage room and threatens the rest of the crew with dynamite. In the course of the standoff, Norris suffers a heart attack. When Copper attempts to revive him by defibrillation, Norris' body transforms and bites off Copper's arms and he bleeds to death. Norris' head detaches from his body and the alien uses it in an attempt to escape as the others burn the body, but the head is discovered and incinerated. Afterward, MacReady theorizes that every piece of the alien is an individual animal with its own survival instinct. In an altercation that precedes a test proposed by MacReady, Clark in an act of mutiny tries to stab MacReady with a scalpel, but is quickly shot in the head and killed by MacReady in self-defense. The rest of the crew complies with the test; blood samples are drawn from each member of the team including Copper and Clark and jabbed with a hot wire to see whose blood will react defensively. Upon realizing that Clark was not infected, Childs denounces MacReady as a murderer. Palmer, the backup pilot, is unmasked as an imitation, and manages to kill Windows before being destroyed by MacReady with dynamite, who also torches Windows' body with a flamethrower as it begins to transform. Nauls' test later confirms that he is in fact human. Confirming that MacReady, Childs, Garry, and Nauls himself are still human, the surviving crew set out to the tool shed in order to administer the test to Blair, only to find that he has escaped by tunneling his way underground. They follow the path and discover that not only had Blair been assimilated, but he had been constructing a small flying vehicle of alien design underneath the tool shed in order to reach and infect the mainland. They return to the surface to witness Childs inexplicably abandoning his post at the main gate, followed by the facility losing power. Realizing that the creature now wants to freeze again so a future rescue team will find it, the remaining crew acknowledge that they will not survive and set about destroying the facility in hopes of killing the creature. While setting explosives in the underground generator room, Garry is killed by the Blair-Thing. Nauls follows the sounds of the creature and is never seen again. Nauls was most likely assimilated by The Thing and/or obliterated by the subsequent explosion that destroyed the whole base and The Thing itself. Category:Characters Category:1982 characters Category:Deceased characters Category:Cooks